Wild Basin Ranger Station, Sandbeach Lake Trailhead

Notice there's NO SNOW.  This is a south facing slope.  There have been high winds,
plenty of sunshine, and not much snow.  So... let's go cross country skiing!
 

OK, this IS snow, but it took us an hour to hike to it.  We were determined to
enjoy our outing no matter what.  Even without any snow, we would happily
hike the trail on this balmy day.
 

Sandbeach Lake.  Balmy weather begone!

Let's see, we covered about 4+ miles in just under 4 hours.  Oh wait, does the
2000 vertical feet count?  Wouldn't that add another 1/2 mile?  Even so,
we were traveling at ~1 mile per hour.  That is crawling!

Oh ya, that IS what we were doing sometimes.  The trail got so steep and narrow
that my skiis would let loose just as my poles sank to their handles and down I'd
go.  So, even after we hit the snow, we continued hiking, carrying our skis.
 
 

This man is smiling!

Is it the utter relief!  Or is it a sense of accomplishment?  No, we think it must
be he is just sorta nuts to do this stuff "for fun".

We KNOW this one is nuts!
 
 

Now For A Nice Trip Down

But NOOooooo.  It was TOO steep and narrow for going down.  I tried.  I
really tried but there was no way.  The springlike weather made the snow a weird
consistancy.  The trail twisted constantly between rocks, trees, cliffs and streams.
The incline would get you going, the narrowness would restrict turning ability.
Braking was useless.

We hiked back down too.

Here's Dave at 5:30pm, six hours after we started our outing.  We've got another
hour before we make it back to my truck.  I took this picture from my spot hunched
up against a tree.  I had dropped my skiis and in an exhausted huff, fell to my grateful
butt on that spot.

That little rest was wonderful.  As you can see, we were losing the light of day.
The one thing that kept us going was the thought of "mmm, beer".  My shoulders
ached from my extra heavy daypack.  My back was tired.  Luckily my legs
were OK.  But, "mmm, beer".

We knew that just at the end of this trail, we'd be able to go a very short way
and get a nice cold beer.

It was so dark when we got down that I didn't notice my truck in the parking
lot.  To a chorus of groans, we stripped off our gear and slipped into more
comfortable shoes.  Drove just about 100 yards to the parking lot of a
restaurant that was open.  For some reason, the place was buzzing with customers.
We were astounded.  That place is way in the boonies, but still, it was packed with
people.  Dave was wondering where Rod Serling might be hiding (Twilight Zone reference).

The bartender suggested some expensive beer, saying it would become our new
favorite.  Heck, anything cold and wet would have become my new favorite.

That first taste... gawd it was good.  That might be the reason we do this, for
that first sip of cold beer afterwards.  You can't get it any other way.  You can't
just go into the kitchen now and open a cold one then expect the experience.
You have to drag yourself along (it helps if it's dark), for more miles than you
imagine you covered.  The trail has to extend itself before you, beyond your
memory of it.  It helps if you stub your toe one too many times but just keep
going.

And it helps if you've been there before.  Not at a particular place, but been
there, doing the long haul, again.  There's a lot about the trip that is "just no
fun".  But then again, what could be more fun.  A bit of adventure before
an amazing beer experience.  That could be why we do this.